Leisure and Nightlife Home Sports of the 1920's
With the increase in wages, and the decrease in the number of hours that the average American worker had to work, people in the 1920's found themselves with large amounts of free time. One of the ways that people found to spend this time was in sports. Different classes of people would participate in and be spectators of sports that were often very class specific. This was also the time during which the "big five," Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Red Grange, Bill Tilden and Bobby Jones player in sports, helping to greatly add popularity to their various sports. Sports of the upper class
Tatem Tildon II becomes first American to win Wimbledon. (4)
The wealthy upper class of the 1920s often played sports that required the players to be in elite clubs that required significant montary assets to be able to enter, such as tennis, golf, and polof. Both tennis and golf had already been played for years in America (tennis had had its own association, the USTA, since 1881), but neither of these sports became very popular in America before the 1920s. This was due in large part to the many Americans who started winning and thus bringing more attention to these previously unknown sports. Tennis got a lot of fame in 1920, the year when the both "Big" Bill Tatem Tilden II, one of the "big five," won the men's singles at Wimbledon and Suzanne Lenglen won the women's singles. Before 1920 no American had ever won at Wimbledon (Wimbledon is considered by many tennis players to be the most important and of the 4 major championships that are player each year).
Golf, like tennis, had a significant growth in popularity during the 1920s. A lot of this growth in popularity was due to some of the truly great golfers that came from America during this time. Bobby Jones, another one of the "big five" and one of the greatest if not the greatest golfer of all time (that title is contested between Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen), began playing in the early twenties, winning his first major title, the U.S. Open, in 1923. He went on to win 13 major championships, becoming the only golf player to ever have a grand slam, winning all four major championships in 1930. Other great golf players, like Johnny Farrell and Charles Evans helped to bring fame to golf and enticed many upper class people to join into expensive private golf clubs.
A game of polo in the 1920s. (13)
Polo is a game in which 4 players on each team are on horseback, each player having a specific location on the field and a specific job to do. Player 1 holds the most offensive position on the field, covering the opposite teams number 4, and generally being the one the one who gets the goals. Positions number 3 and 4 are the hardest positions to play, and generally the best team members play these positions. Position 2's offensive job is to either run through and score the goal or to pass the ball on to position, while defensively he has to keep the ball out of the enemy team's number 3 player. Position 3 has the important defensive job of stopping the enemy team's number 2 from scoring and keeping him from being able to pass the ball to number 1. Position 4 acts as something of a goalkeeper, for they are the last player on the field that has the chance to stop the enemy team from scoring. The objective of the game is to knock a small ball through goalposts on either side of the field that are about 8 yards apart. Polo had become an easy, laid back game in England that required little physical skill for the horses or riders, and probably would not have become popular if Harry Payne Whitney had not changed the game of polo into a fast action packed game that required a lot of physical conditioning for both horse and rider. Whitney loved long passes that went far down the field to players that had broken out at full gallop. Upper class Americans loved the fun of such a fast paced game at which they could show off their e
A picture of a typical yacht from the 1920s. (6)
questrian skills and many polo clubs and teams were formed during the 1920s.
The upper class now had the ability to own private yachts due to the cheaper prices of the mass produced yachts, allowing them to go on private boating trips. Water skiing became popular, as a result of the greater number of people owning their own boats, with the first water ski's being patented on July 8, 1925 by Fred Waller calling them "Dolphin Akwa-Skees". Water skiing had originally been invented in 1922 by Ralph Samuelson, but, unfortunately for Samuelson, he never patented the idea and never ended up making a dime from it.
Ralph Samuelson on one of his first attempts at water skiing. (5)
Sports of the Middle and Lower Class
Babe Ruth hitting his 60th home run.
The 1920s marked the first time that the middle class and the upper lower class had the free time and assets to enjoy and take part in sports. The most popular sports in the middle class were baseball, football, and boxing. This was the time in American history at which baseball truly was the national pastime. Baseball was a sport for all classes to enjoy, although there were not very many upper class people that would watch baseball, as it was often publicized as a "working man's sport." In 1927 the . In 1927 the Yankees team (shown below) was voted the "Greatest Team of all Time" by 29 out of 100 baseball experts, the year when George Herman "Babe" Ruth (playing for the Yankees) set the single season home run record of 60 that has only been broken three times since then. Basebal was the only sport that allowed all black teams to play in all black leagues. Unfortunately, these leagues were only watched by African Americans and very few white people even realized that these leagues existed.
A picture of "Red" Grange
Football started gaining popularity with the working class man during the later part of the 20s, but when the great depression hit, football lost a lot of the popularity because no one had time to go out to watch games anymore. At the beginning of the 20s football was in shambles, and looking like it was going to be lost forever. The game was only 25 years old and back then the game was a "play-for-pay" sport, and it is likely that if the NFL (at first it was named the APFA or American Professional Football Association, but that name was changed to the NFL in 1922) had not been founded in Canton, Ohio on September 17, 1920, football would likely have been lost to the anals of history. The NFL finally hired players for the entire season instead of one game at a time and also brought much needed standardized rules for the game. Harold Edward "Red" Grange, one of the "big five" sports heroes of the 1920s, started playing in the NFL in 1925. Before Grange joined the NFL it was much more popular for people to watch college football, but once Grange joined the NFL people finally started going to see NFL games instead of college games. In 2008, Grange was named the greatest college football player of all time.
Boxing of all weights beca
A picture of Jack Dempsey
me more popular in the 1920s, although heavyweight was the most predominant. This predominance of the heavyweight division was due largely to Jack Dempsey's (another one of the "big five") dominance of the heavyweight division with his record of 82 fights 66 wins and 51 KOs. Jack Dempsey had won the world title in 1919 and was able to defend that title until 1926. The National Boxing Association (NBA) was extablished in 1927. The NBA looked into the regulation of the game with a fair governing body. Their main goal was to arrange championships between the best players and look after the ethics of the game.
Sports for everyone
Horse races and greyhound races were sports that all classes would watch and place bets on, according to how much money they had available. Both the greyhound and horse races used a form of betting known as paramutuel betting, in which all the money that is bet is pooled and the payoff is decided by dividing the pot among all placed bets. Greyhound racing had come about in 1912, with the invention of a mechanical hare that the greyhound's would chase after. Greyhound racing appealed mostly to the working class man, although a fair number of upper class people also went to greyhound races to bet.
Horse racing had been going on in the U.S. since 1655. In the 1920s horse races and betting on them had an explosion of popularity because of the higher wages of the working class man looking to make a little extra money. The early 1900s also marked the time when horses started being bred an trained to excel at a specific distance, instead of trying to make a horse good for all around racing they would now train them to bursts of speed or for long distance stamina.
Works Cited
Bellis, Mary. "History of Water Skiing." About: Inventors. About. 6 Mar. 2008 <http://inventors.about.com/od/wstartinventions/a/waterskiing.htm>.
Sports of the 1920's
With the increase in wages, and the decrease in the number of hours that the average American worker had to work, people in the 1920's found themselves with large amounts of free time. One of the ways that people found to spend this time was in sports. Different classes of people would participate in and be spectators of sports that were often very class specific. This was also the time during which the "big five," Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Red Grange, Bill Tilden and Bobby Jones player in sports, helping to greatly add popularity to their various sports.
Sports of the upper class
Golf, like tennis, had a significant growth in popularity during the 1920s. A lot of this growth in popularity was due to some of the truly great golfers that came from America during this time. Bobby Jones, another one of the "big five" and one of the greatest if not the greatest golfer of all time (that title is contested between Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen), began playing in the early twenties, winning his first major title, the U.S. Open, in 1923. He went on to win 13 major championships, becoming the only golf player to ever have a grand slam, winning all four major championships in 1930. Other great golf players, like Johnny Farrell and Charles Evans helped to bring fame to golf and enticed many upper class people to join into expensive private golf clubs.
Polo is a game in which 4 players on each team are on horseback, each player having a specific location on the field and a specific job to do. Player 1 holds the most offensive position on the field, covering the opposite teams number 4, and generally being the one the one who gets the goals. Positions number 3 and 4 are the hardest positions to play, and generally the best team members play these positions. Position 2's offensive job is to either run through and score the goal or to pass the ball on to position, while defensively he has to keep the ball out of the enemy team's number 3 player. Position 3 has the important defensive job of stopping the enemy team's number 2 from scoring and keeping him from being able to pass the ball to number 1. Position 4 acts as something of a goalkeeper, for they are the last player on the field that has the chance to stop the enemy team from scoring. The objective of the game is to knock a small ball through goalposts on either side of the field that are about 8 yards apart. Polo had become an easy, laid back game in England that required little physical skill for the horses or riders, and probably would not have become popular if Harry Payne Whitney had not changed the game of polo into a fast action packed game that required a lot of physical conditioning for both horse and rider. Whitney loved long passes that went far down the field to players that had broken out at full gallop. Upper class Americans loved the fun of such a fast paced game at which they could show off their e
The upper class now had the ability to own private yachts due to the cheaper prices of the mass produced yachts, allowing them to go on private boating trips. Water skiing became popular, as a result of the greater number of people owning their own boats, with the first water ski's being patented on July 8, 1925 by Fred Waller calling them "Dolphin Akwa-Skees". Water skiing had originally been invented in 1922 by Ralph Samuelson, but, unfortunately for Samuelson, he never patented the idea and never ended up making a dime from it.
Sports of the Middle and Lower Class
Boxing of all weights beca
Sports for everyone
Horse races and greyhound races were sports that all classes would watch and place bets on, according to how much money they had available. Both the greyhound and horse races used a form of betting known as paramutuel betting, in which all the money that is bet is pooled and the payoff is decided by dividing the pot among all placed bets. Greyhound racing had come about in 1912, with the invention of a mechanical hare that the greyhound's would chase after. Greyhound racing appealed mostly to the working class man, although a fair number of upper class people also went to greyhound races to bet.
Horse racing had been going on in the U.S. since 1655. In the 1920s horse races and betting on them had an explosion of popularity because of the higher wages of the working class man looking to make a little extra money. The early 1900s also marked the time when horses started being bred an trained to excel at a specific distance, instead of trying to make a horse good for all around racing they would now train them to bursts of speed or for long distance stamina.
Works Cited
Bellis, Mary. "History of Water Skiing." About: Inventors. About. 6 Mar. 2008 <http://inventors.about.com/od/wstartinventions/a/waterskiing.htm>.
"Boxing in the 1920's." Answers. 6 Mar. 2008 <http://www.answers.com/topic/boxing-in-the-1920s>.
"Polo History." Dundee and Perth Polo Club. 6 Mar. 2008 http://www.scottishpolo.com/history_game.html.
Rabinowitz, Howard N. "Golf." Encyclopedia of Chicago. 6 Mar. 2008 <http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/525.html>.
Shellhouse, John. "Major League Baseball." Baseball in the 1920's. 6 Mar. 2008 <http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/5830/johnspage.html#top>.
"Sports in the 1920's." The Roaring Twenties. 6 Mar. 2008 <http://library.thinkquest.org/C005846/categories/sports/sports.htm>.